These are reproductions of some antique Scandinavian shades a client had that had just gotten too old and brittle. Ribs are 1/4 baltic birch ply veneered on both sides to avoid any short-grain issues. Then carefully bandsawn to shape with kerfs for the hoops to slide into. The hoops , made from single pieces of vertical-grained fir, had to be very precise in their respective sizes and were created by overlapping and gluing the ends with CA glue and an activator. Had to make a little clamping jig to help with that. These were very fragile and under tension. The smallest splinter would run and split the hoop. Then the hoops were slid into the kerfs and attached with a carefully placed drop of glue and a few pre-drilled brads. For these fir shades I had the originals to use for patterns, although they were pretty rough, being made from a CDX type material. I was able to reuse the metal hardware for attaching the wood to the lamp/bulb. The ash wall sconce I posted as well is my own design using very similar techniques. No finish was used at all on any of these. Hope this helps.